Beaudry bottles & bushwhacks

[onestep]

Oncoman, PapaBear, and I spent a couple of hazy hot & humid days bushwhacking 3K peaks off the Beaudry Rd in Maine. For those of you into this sort of thing, "the Beaudry" must be as close to 3K bushwhack heaven / mecca / paradise as it gets! (but shhhhhh, don't tell anybody).

Friday 07-14-06; we set our sight on the Smarts. Our route took us up the SE ridge of W Smart - 3290' where we found the jar (bottle) at the summit. The jar and it's contents where in the best condition of all 8 we would find over the next 2 days. In addition to the jar, Papa Bear located a "bench mark" which was used to survey the US/Canada border way back when...
We left the summit and followed the ridge in a clockwise direction over to Smart Mtn - 3245' where we found the summit jar on the ground under a blowdown. It was half full of water, it's register unreadable. We rehung the jar and added a new register. Leaving the summit we made our way back to the car with thoughts of 'whacking Moose Mtn next.
We explored the logging roads north of Moose Mtn looking for a road that TerraServer shows ascending directly towards the summit. We could not find that road, and one thing led to another, and soon Oncoman & I where off to 'whack "Unnamed Boundry: BROWN (N PK)" - 3541'.
Our plan was to bushwhack Brown which is located on the US / Canada boundry swath. If time allowed we would then continue over to Rain Mtn SW Peak - 3510'. We approached from the E following Caribou Bog Rd as far as we could. This road is aptly named. It's upper reaches, and side branches, are very wet and boggy and built without the benifit of gravel. I assume they where only used as winter haul roads when the ground was frozen. Anyway's, we reached the summit of Brown and found the jar. It's plastic cover was cracked and it was 3/4 full of water! We rehung a new jar and placed a new register. After a brief rest we where off towards SW Rain.
Heading over to SW Rain was a bit of gamble. It was getting late in the day and the detailed map we had showed only 3/4 of the route along the ridge. For the remainder of the 'whack, including the descent off SW Rain, we would have to rely on a large scale "overview" map.
The bushwhack was pretty straight foreward, head E to a bump along the ridgeline and then bend right and over to SW Rain. We arrived at the summit to find another jar 3/4 full of water! Whats up with this? We drained the jar, added a dry register, and called it good. The time was 7PM so we dug out our headlamps. We really didn't know if we could make it back to the car before dark! We left the summit heading true north and found easy going all the way back down into the boggy wet valley. We made it back to the car before dark. (disclaimer, unprofessional whack-o's on closed course, do not try this at home )

Saturday 07-15-06; On the agenda today will be a 4 peak loop 'whack that will again take us along the border swath. In the last 2 weeks I've been on and about the US / Canada border swath multiple times and marvel at the openness of it.
Oncoman, PapaBear, and I started the day out with a long road walk, and short "ATV" trail, to the summit of W Caribou - 3650'. What a scrappy summit. I'm glad both Oncoman & PapaBear knew exactly where the summit bump was! The jar & it's contents was in good shape but is still missing a pencil. Our "jar maintaince / resupply kit" was getting depleted at this point!
We left W Caribou and 'whacked easterly towards the border swath which we would then follow N. Along the border we first climbed Monument Peak 411 - 3582' which is on a Quebec list that Oncoman had. From there we continue N across an unnamed 3300' bump and on to "Unnamed Boundry: (S BUMP)" - 3319'. We easly found the jar, it's top tied to a tree, it's bottom half and contents no where to be found. We did not (could not) replace it.
From S Bump we bushwhacked NNE to the very open and broad summit of "Unnamed: ("BUMP")" - 3430'. We had a difficult time finding the jar even though (maybe because) it was located in plain sight! this jar too had water in it. We scrounged our packs finding yet another zip-lock and dry paper to place in the jar. We left the jar where we found it, sitting at the root base of a large tree that leans at a 45 degree angle.
Also on Bump, Papa Bear found yet another survey marker ("bench mark") that was used in the border survey. We read in the log that Eric Schlimmer also found the marker 2 years ago. What makes this interesting is that the marker is located in the middle of an island of thick spruce.
From the summit of Bump our 'whack would continue on towards the ENE and the final summit of the day... "Unnamed: (E BUMP) - Merrill Strip" - 3447'. We where enjoying mostly open woods since leaving the border. This was appreciated as we where starting to fatigue from the high heat & humidity of the day. We easily found the summit and jar. This jar was found on the ground. We rehung it and called it good. We descended off the peak towards the S and the logging road that would bring us back to our cars. While descending we heard the distant sound of thunder. The storm held off untill we where "safely" back on the logging road. The coolness of the rain felt good!

PICTURES HERE

Onestep

[Gamehiker]

Great work guys! You make these peaks seem more accessible than I had thought. A couple of questions if you don't mind. Where were your cars parked in picture 1? How far did you drive up the Caribou Bog road? Thanks, Gamehiker.

[audrey]

Guys, I'm really impressed. Pat and I would have liked to join you for some of it on Friday but it was not to be. Truly exciting stuff, as only we loony whackers know: E Bump Jar, Jar on Bump...

[Papa Bear]

In spite of the heat, humidity and bugs (I still have about a half dozen black fly bites itching. They just love the back of your neck and behind the ears!) it was a great trip.

Before meeting Onestep, I had three days of peaksbagging with Oncoman from the Canadian side.

I'm halfway home (at my son's house) now. Hopefully I'll get something up when I get home tonight or tomorrow.

Audrey: we missed you. Hopefully you and Pat can do something up there soon - love to join you.

[Nate]

Onestep, thank you for the trip report. It's funny, when I came into work this morning, I was thinking to myself "Hmmm, I wonder if Onestep was able to do any peakbagging this weekend?" Since I wasn't able to hit the mountains at all on Saturday or Sunday, I'm glad to learn others were able to claim some 'whack peaks. Seven in one weekend isn't a bad haul. Plus, I'm quite jealous that you were able to bag these peaks with such a fun, experienced group of bushwhackers. Despite the hordes of black flies and summer conditions, it must have been a really enjoyable two days in the Maine wilderness.

Further, it's good to read that Oncoman finally got to sign in at the West Caribou register. If he starts missing going up there every other weekend, I guess we could send him up one more time with a replacement pencil! Also, when you guys replaced the registers on some peaks, what did you do with the old logs? I presume they were still legible.

Anyway, thank you so much for the trip report and the update regarding these mountains!

[onestep]

Originally Posted by Nate

Also, when you guys replaced the registers on some peaks, what did you do with the old logs? I presume they were still legible.

Nate,
On all 8 summits we found jars. Three where literally 3/4 full of water, the logs where soaked. We dried things out the best we could and then added a new log in a new ziplock. We put the old logs back into the jar.
Two jars where broken, no log's to be found. We replaced one jar. We left the broken remains of both at the summit. They are after all, historical artifacts!
Finally, the remaining 3 jars where in good shape... amazing after hanging around for 20 years!

Onestep

[dms]

Nice report and pics Kurt. It is amazing how many registers are failing. It's great that you take the time to repair/replace them.

[Pig Pen]

Hey Onestep

Of course you know that this means that I will shamelessly use all of your good info to bag these peaks for myself. I hope you removed all of the sharp sticks from the trees. You know how I hate it when I get a sharp stick in the ear. Nice job.

Phil

[John H Swanson]

Thanks for the post. It bought back some great memories. Doing the horseshoe loop over these peaks on July 3, 95 was quite the adventure for our hiking group.

The trip turned out to be one of my most interesting navigational challenges. Working from copies of the topo map, I had taped all the copies together and omitted the one section in the center of the horseshoe where we had to park the car - a 4" x4" section of the map was missing. Plus the road was quite flat (=-20ft) so when we hit the road we could not say for sure to turn left or right by altimeter reading. Not very smart. So from the last bump, I wanted to dilagently follow the bearing to the spot where I thought the car was. But along the way, we kept hitting bogs making large deviations necessary. Then we hit some blowdown. We had a black lab along and, by the end of the day, it's belly was so torn up from the brush. It just wouldn't go any further. So, I was carrying the dog on my shoulders while hopping from log to log going through waves of blowdown while trying to navigate.
After years many of the trips fade, but that memory is clear.

Most impressive were the register entries by Tom Sawyer. It went something like this:

On the east peak of Caribou : Tom Sawyer 1/22/9? 2:00pm -22F Breaking deep powder.
On the center peak: Tom Sawyer 1/22/9? 3:30pm
On the west Peak: Tom Sawyer 1/22/9? 4:50pm -24F Morale is high.

Just 2 questions:
When does it get dark on Jan 22?
How far can you drive in, in winter. Probably not far off the Beaudry Road.

[Dennis C.]

What memories for sure! Great report. I'm adding this click-on MAP for those who are familiar can scan the general bushwhack peak area. Papa Bear sent me some great e-mail closeup photos of your trip, including one of our group entry (and register placement) on West Smart on 22 Aug 1987. Is there much logging activity these days? Are the secondary roads and bridges intact? As I recall there's close to (25) 3000 footers in that remote area.

[Nate]

Since the subject's been broached, I've been wondering, when did that one group loop over nine of the peaks in that area in one day? I'm sorry I missed out on such a productive day of bushwhacking.

[RoySwkr]

The PeakMaster & I did the Smart/Caribou peaks in Sept 83 on our first Beaudry Road trip. At that time there were plastic survey panels leading away from 2 of the survey markers in a triangle shape for visibility in air photos, I guess they are not removed but just left to disintegrate. The markers themselves were completely hidden under the cairns, but the panels were a giveaway and we uncovered them for a look. We also found 2 survey markers on 3319.

[Oncoman]

Thanks Papa Bear & Onestep for a superb bushwacking trip. Great report Kurt.

Nice to hike with guys as obsessed as you, if not more, for nameless & viewless peaks, with as sole reward finding a broken or water-filled jar register on top.

However my real reward was having had the privilege & honour of meeting you both & sharing together for a few hours a common goal, despite the physical & mental hardships entailed; as well as living intensely my passion for nature in all its wilderness & beauty. Just can't wait to get back out there...

Pierre

[John H Swanson]

Originally Posted by Nate

Since the subject's been broached, I've been wondering, when did that one group loop over nine of the peaks in that area in one day? I'm sorry I missed out on such a productive day of bushwhacking.

If you are referring to my post. We did a horseshoe loop of 6 peaks....not 9 peaks.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by John H Swanson

If you are referring to my post. We did a horseshoe loop of 6 peaks....not 9 peaks.

John, if you look at Papa Bear's trip report for West Caribou (from his Fifty Finest page) he references one group hiking six peaks in the area, but another doing nine. Based on what's been posted here, it appears Roy is claiming credit for the latter orgy of bushwhacking.